Sieve cages are usually used for the disposal, cleaning, conditioning and the compilation, sterilization, storage and transport of medical, in particular surgical instruments and/or implants. Sieve cages of this type are known, for example, from DE 20 2007 003 395 U1.
Due to the use of closable sterile containers, the entire circulation of the supply and disposal of sterile matters can be better standardized, monitored and documented. These containers do not only allow the sterile transport and the simple provisioning in the surgical room, but also the safe disposal of used instruments. Keeping the instruments in sterile condition as well as the closed transport of used instruments serves for protecting both the patient and the clinic staff. Such a sterile container is described in DE 10 2010 037 659 A1, for instance. Sterile containers of this type comprise a bottom wall, a surrounding side wall as well as a lid. In a closed position of the sterile container, the lid has its lid edge encompassing a free edge arranged on the side of the side wall facing away from the bottom wall and closes the container in tight manner. Any exchange of gas or steam between the container interior and the atmosphere takes place for instance via filter elements which are integrated in the lid.
Cases for the sterilization of instruments are also known from DE 41 03 146 A1.
Hitherto, the transport and storage systems were designed almost exclusively for the short and manageable transport routes within a hospital or even only for the transport between the central sterilization ward and the surgical room, which as a rule are very close to each other.
Due to the increased use of rental sets and the outsourcing of services, which so far have been taken over by the clinic-internal central sterilization ward, to external service providers, the prerequisites for the handling of the existing container and storage systems have changed significantly. The rental sets must be able to be checked easily and have to be conditioned directly in the packed state. The extra effort due to repacking, unpacking and newly packing is to be kept as low as possible. At the same time, the lender wants to quickly and safely reach a high turnover with the rental set, as the rental sets are sophisticated and costly.
Due to the outsourcing of the central sterilization, the sterilized instruments sometimes have to be transported over long distances. In doing so, the content of a sterile container or sterilization case may be damaged. It may happen in particular that the sieve cages slide back and forth during transport and strike at the inner wall of the sterile container, whereby, on the one hand, the sterile container can be deformed and, on the other hand, the instruments which to some extent are lying loosely in the sieve cage hit one another and might be damaged on this occasion.
DE 10 2008 057 252 A1 discloses a clamping device for fixing surgical instruments. Such a clamping device may also be inserted in a sieve cage. Clamping devices of this type, however, require a high effort during sorting and fastening the instruments and also are at the expense of the flexibility and the possible applications of such sieve cages.